


Brown Dwarfs

by gracec9c



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Rey Kenobi, a bunch of ocs but the important one is Obi-wan's daughter rey's mom, she has the absolute worst time why am i so mean to her, the kenobi family is actaully cursed with terrible luck, wrote this after seeing the last jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 19:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16582415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracec9c/pseuds/gracec9c
Summary: Brown dwarfs are objects which are too large to be called planets and too small to be stars. They don't have the mass to create nuclear fission. So, they are called 'failed stars', stars who died before ever being born.This is the story of Molly, a nobody from a desert planet who could have been somebody but was never given the chance.





	Brown Dwarfs

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Here is the first fic I am ever posting. This is unbetaed so feel free to point out anything off. Yeah I wrote this a while ago (pretty soon after the last Jedi) but never posted it but came across it recently and went why not. This was my attempt to still have Rey Kenobi keeping with tlj canon and feel pretty good about it. I hope you enjoy.

Obi-wan looked down on the small infant sleeping on the worn blanket. Absentmindedly she sucked on her thumb unaware of the unfortunate circumstances of her birth. Her mother a room away exhausted and staring into the void cursing the child who left her bedridden, the child she never wanted to bring into this cruel, cruel world. Her father that didn't even come to see his child born, who was probably drunk at some bar a system over. No, this infant slept soundly naive to the tragedy her life was. Even the name her mother in a moment of cruelty branded her with foretold her fate, Aleen. Alone. It seemed it was the fate of his bloodline to be alone. Obi-wan, Molly, and now little Aleen, there was no escape from their cursed fate.

There was no one watching as Obi-wan reached down with his translucent hand to brush the side of her face. Aleen didn't fit her and Obi-wan was sure even Molly knew that, despite her inability to see past her own pain. Obi-wan had no intention of ever leaving her. He had failed Molly by being so distracted by Skywalkers and the galaxy to notice that tiny little light that he created. And now that light was gone and nothing he could do could ever bring it back. He could only look after this new light, this new nebula in the force and nurture her the best he could from death.

And to begin she needed a better name, one that did not damn her to be like the rest of them before she even began. There was one name that came to Obi-wan instantly but he immediately thought that it was cruel. This child should not have to shoulder the burden of that name. But then he remembered a young boy half a galaxy away who recently stepped into his Uncles temple. The little boy who carried his name, Ben. Leia and Han had named him that in honor of the one who brought them together, their only hope. Hope. Obi-wan could live with that. Maybe by gifting this tiny girl that name it could be hope, hope for a new world, a better one. Maybe one day the two young children would meet and finally the two bloodlines could be at peace with one another. Yes, the name might be a burden but it is also a promise that there could be more than just drunk junkers and broken families. Somethings can be fixed.

“Hello there, Annie, I'm your Grandfather”

* * *

 

Molly didn’t notice the tears falling down her face until their small shuttle had escaped the Jakku atmosphere. She wiped away the salty water and stared down at her wet hand as if it were foreign to her (When was the last time she cried, Molly could not for the life of her remember).

“Why the Kriff are you crying, you aren't going to tell me now that you cared about that little parasite”

Molly looked over at the man she once upon a time thought she loved, Dugal’s face distorted in a sneer. She rarely saw his face in any other expression these days, but she was one to talk, she couldn’t bring herself to express emotions she never felt. It was like she existed within a void and the world around her just continued spinning and spinning. Aleen was supposed to fix that, she was supposed to fix things between Molly and Dugal. Dugal was supposed to care about things like he did in the beginning, the void Molly felt was supposed to be filled. When she learned she was pregnant for the first time in her life she felt like something was right. There was something telling her that this unborn child was important. But then Aleen was born and nothing changed, Dugal wasn’t even there and there was no grand realization, she didn’t look down on the infant and think that everything in her life made sense. No, the chasm that was her life just grew larger.

Molly knew she was being petty with that name, it wasn’t that child’s fault that everything is wrong with Molly’s life. But by the time she had thought that through it was too late, her name was Aleen, alone. It was prophetic in a sense, considering here she was leaving her all alone on some backwater desert planet. Didn’t that kriffing war hero, the Jedi, come from a desert planet. Who knows maybe that little girl will have the same sort of luck, though if she was anything like Molly, probably not.

“No, I mean, ugg, I don’t know ok. Why I’m crying”

Dugal just sent a half glare her way before turning back to the controls, setting the course for one of the many people he was in debt to. With Aleen gone, it was supposed to be better, despite the fact that she had nothing to do with anything. Every time Molly looked at her, she was reminded of the pointlessness of hope. With her gone maybe at least that pain would be gone. But no, now she felt even emptier, not because of her absence but it almost felt as if she had lost something she didn’t even realize was there until it was gone.

 Aleen was gone. And so was something else, something that had been with her before Aleen was even born, and now the bond was severed. It was like missing a hand. That was why the tears fell, the guilt and… that.

It was the end of something, Molly did not know what, but there was no going back to what there was before.

* * *

 

When Molly was little she and her mother were always moving. Her mothers work demanded it and later Molly would lament that she was running away from something. She would have guessed her father, but her mother was always very upfront about her mysterious father. They had met at a bar on Tatooine, he had a coreworld’s accent and was very polite and treated her with respect. He could hold his liquor and had a sharp wit. One time when she was in a better mood her mother giggled as she twirled Mara’s hair around her fingers and stated that she was happy she took after her father on the hair department. Ginger hair is so pretty and bright. 

Her mood always soured quickly, “He was sad you know, he wasn’t at that bar for kicks. He had an air of loneliness about him. I think he wanted to forget how alone he was, even if it was only for a little while” Her mother’s hands stilled, “I wonder sometimes, Whe-no. No, it’s nothing” 

The joy in the air was gone, replaced once again by the feeling of crushing despair. Her mother left soon after that, to do who knows what. 

If there was one advantage to the traveling, it was the people. You meet all sorts of people on the road. Molly learned how to fix engines from a bored freelance contractor on the way to a new job. First aid from a nun who was going on a spiritual journey in the outer rim who wanted to help poor locals. Molly still remembers the face of the bounty hunter who thought it would be funny to teach the little girl how to shoot and who in turn managed to make a bullseye on her first shot. (Molly always hated blasters, there was never a particular reason, just for some reason they always felt wrong in her hands. But she was a damn good shot and her mother made her promise to always carry one with her. It was a dangerous galaxy and would be even more dangerous unarmed, so Molly carried one from then onwards, the cumbersome weight on her side.)

But what Molly preferred most of all were the stories, the legends. Many people with many stories and far away from the empires ear. Many contradicted each other and most were false but there is always a little bit of truth in legends and in the end, it didn’t matter if they were real. Molly would sit still for hours listening to tales of the old republic, of the Jedi and the Sith, of pirates and bounty hunters and Mandalorians. There were even stories of Thrawn, the emperor’s greatest admiral, whose stories were mostly real, except for the one old man who rambled about how the empire fell and Thrawn came from the outer rim and fought a New Republic and there was stuff about cloning. While ridiculous, Molly always liked that story and that man. He was the one who told her favorite legend. But, well that is a story for another time.

Molly was 15 when she first heard the name Luke Skywalker. She was 15 when she learned that the Jedi had returned. She was 15 when she went up to that rebellion poster with his face on it and reached out shakily at it, because it couldn’t be… Luke, like the legend. A Jedi, like the stories. She didn’t even think before tearing down the poster and spinning on her heel back to her ship.

She held the poster close to her heart as she darted forward her heart pounding. If she could even describe what she was feeling it would have to have been hope. Because the Jedi were back and the death star destroyed and his name was Luke like the legend. She would ask her mother to join the rebellion and if she said no Molly would join without her. She had gotten pretty great at fixing things over the years. They always needed mechanics and she was a good shot so while she hated blasters, she would deal with it for this chance. A chance to join the rebellion and meet Luke and maybe she would like _her_ in the legend, her favorite character, and maybe and maybe and maybe. Molly decided she liked the feeling of hope.

            “Mother-"  

Molly was 15 when she found her mother face down in a pool of booze her glass still in her hand. Alcohol poisoning, the mortician said, it was a long time coming. At 15 she found herself an orphan twice over even though she was unaware of her father’s demise on the death star not that long before, the crinkled poster of Luke Skywalker forgotten face down on the ground. At 15 she never did join the rebellion, or at 16 or 17 or 18 or 19. She never joined the rebellion and when the news came to the backwater planet she was currently on that the emperor was dead, the empire on the run, while everyone else was celebrating she raised her flask to hopeless dreams and took it all down in one gulp.      

(Obi-wan reached out to Molly, his hand phasing right through her. She didn’t even notice, she was so closed off to the force. He had gotten there too late, she wouldn’t listen, she didn’t want to. She had surrounded her force presence in so much pain that she was unrecognizable. But Obi-wan would stay, he would keep trying to make her hear him, remind her that she is not alone, that she doesn’t have to be alone. He would save her because he can’t fail her again, he can’t fail anyone else again, he has already done too much of that.)

(As Annie screamed for her parents all Obi-wan could do was kneel in the sand next to her and cry. Because Molly couldn’t hear him, she never could and Dugal was a monster who wouldn’t listen even if he could. He cried for Annie who was going to feel so alone and for Molly his poor daughter he was going to have to leave behind again. Because he had to pick and he picked Annie. He cried for his daughter who he always abandoned for someone else.)   

* * *

Molly froze.

She had heard that this village was looking for mechanics, that they sold ships and other technology to the resistance. Molly didn’t care much for the politics and whatnot but they promised wages and housing and Molly was done working on and off for crime bosses.

(She still remembers the smell of singed flesh as Dugal fell to the floor his breath still smelling of the booze he had been drinking. He had angered one to many powerful underworld figures and when he was drunk, he was an angry rambler spouting out all sorts of slander (He also got violent, Molly’s nose never did set right and the bruises were still fading). She was spared because they never had given her a second glance, despite the fact that it certainly wasn’t Dugal fixing their ships. She was done with criminal work, she wanted uncomplicated work that paid decently where she could spend her leftover money on alcohol so for a short period of time, she could forget the void, the emptiness and the echoing screams of a little girl who deserved so much more than the monsters that were her parents.)      

But when she saw the Resistance recruitment poster she froze, because she knew that girl. She had grown, of course she did, and her hair was no longer in the stupid buns that Molly had done when she was half drunk but in a better mood than normal. Aleen had loved them, she had paraded around with them and cried when Molly had tried to remove them at bedtime. But well things change. Because there was her little girl on a resistance poster and she was a Jedi. Dugal wouldn’t have even recognized her, but Molly did, oh god she did. She had heard rumors that the Resistance had found a Jedi, but she never thought in a thousand years--

“Oh, I see you are enamored with Rey, it seems everyone is. She is supposedly something else in action, haven’t met her myself but I have talked to people who have, and they get all starry eyed. A real Jedi, and she even has a cool double-bladed lightsaber at that.”

Rey.

Of course, she has a new name, the one Molly had given her was cruel. Rey, king, a ray of light. It was fitting of a Jedi. Much more appropriate than Aleen. Molly found herself reaching out towards the poster before quickly drawing her hand back. No. She didn’t deserve this, A-Rey deserved better than her messed up broken mother who left her alone for debt money.

“Oh, do you want the poster? We have a million of them, take it, here,” and then the man tore down the poster and passed to her an easy smile on his face. There was a long moment where Molly just stared at the poster and in a moment of utter rashness, she grabbed it, careful to not crease A-Rey’s face.

“Thank…You”

And the man’s face lit up and for a moment the future repercussions of her decision were worth the look of joy on his face.

* * *

 

When she closed the door of her small apartment behind her, she immediately slid down the wall to the floor, the last of her will exhausted holding herself together half way across town. She outlined Rey’s face with her finger. She could see herself in that face and Dugal, but thankfully the later to a lesser degree. She had Molly’s eyes, her mother’s eyes, but Molly already knew that, but there was something new there. Whenever Molly looked into the mirror her eyes always seemed dead, as if they reflected the void that was her soul. But Rey’s eyes, oh Rey’s eyes, they were so light. There was hope in those eyes in a way that Molly’s never had. They reminded her of someone’s, though she couldn’t remember who. They were blue, and there was so much love and hope in them. Molly could not recall where she ever saw such eyes because she was sure she would have remembered such a person.

“Hey there, little one, you have grown up haven’t you” Molly didn’t know what possessed her to start talking to a poster but when she started, she couldn’t stop, she felt the tears building in her eyes.

“I mean of course you have it’s been more than ten years, kriff. I have gotten old. You are a Jedi now, because of course you are. You survived abandonment and the sands of Jakku, you can do anything.” Molly had to pause in her rambling because she let out a large sob.

“You’re a resistance fighter and an inspiration and it seems that everyone thinks you are amazing. Because you are. You want to know something, I guess part of me always blamed everything on my horrible luck, my father never being there, my mother a drunk who went between seeming to care a shit ton about me to not caring at all. Then I blamed Dugal and all his shit. I always subconsciously blamed my shit life for how I turned out.

“But look at you. You arguably had the shittier life, your parents selling you to close a debt, living your life alone on Jakku of all places, and who knows of all the bad things that happened that led to you joining the resistance. And look at you. Despite all that you are still _good_. You still have hope, you are a kriffing Jedi who is going to save the galaxy. And then there is me, I could have joined the rebellion after mother died, fight in her honor, but no, I just decided to follow in her footsteps and become a drunk. Then Dugal showed up and I just pretended that I didn’t notice how terrible he was, because I was so damn lonely that I was willing to support a monster because he pretended to care about me. He decided to SELL YOU AND I DID NOTHING. I did nothing, nothing.”

The sobs just kept coming, she was sure if her neighbors were listening, they could hear her, the sound of a heart breaking ten years too late.

“And now that’s what I am, nothing. I made all the wrong choices and now I am nothing. But you made yourself something. You made yourself great and kind and _good_. You made all the right choices and I am so proud of you for it. That doesn’t mean much coming from me of all people but I’ll say it anyways, even though you are not even here. I love you and I am so proud of you. I’m sorry I should have told you that long ago, when you were with me. But back then I was so distracted by my own hopelessness to realize that. I loved the way you were so proud of those stupid buns and the way you always wanted the window seat so you could look at the stars. The way you would listen engrossed in those old legends I would tell you when I was in a better mood, about the rebellion and smugglers and my favorite legend of a Jedi named Luke, that I accidentally added Skywalker to and you didn’t even notice, who fell in love with a Sith assassin named Mara Jade and once after you fell asleep I confessed that I always felt connected to Mara and preferred that name to my own.

“I love you and I am sorry I did not say that sooner, I am so sorry I left you behind. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...,”  

Molly cried herself to sleep clutching the poster close to her heart.        

* * *

 

The New Order descended on the small town like a creature out of a nightmare. They were attempting to cut off supplies to the resistance. Molly knew it was in vain, the resistance was growing larger by the day. Ever since the galaxy learned that they have a Jedi, one who struck down the supreme leader, volunteers came in droves. Molly had seen it before all those years ago with Luke. It also helped that Rey herself had been making recruitment journeys herself. Within a week of arriving on Mandalore she managed to gather quite the army as well as bring two Mandalorian Jedi out of the woodwork, as well as the wielder of the dark saber.  Lando Calrission had finally managed to gain the support of the remaining New Republic worlds and had joined the battle. And there were rumors that she was seeking out the original Fulcrum, a Jedi from the old Republic, from before the old order fell that was protecting an oracle. No, the New Order had already lost in all but name.

But it did not stop them from destroying lives as their burning carcass fell to the floor. They had captured this village in a plan to convert it to a New Order factory, but they had to make an example of those who wished to oppose them first. They had started dragging people at random out of the crowd, Mara could hear the anguished screams filling the air. And then she saw it, one of the stormtroopers headed straight towards her.

No, not her, they were headed for the person next to Molly. The man who gave her the poster, who smiled so kindly, who she didn’t even remember his name. Her feet moved before she even thought it through. In her head she was screaming pick me, pick me, not him, he is good, so good. And maybe someone listened because they adjusted their course and when the stormtroopers hand closed around her arm everything was right in the world.

The man who smiled looked in horror as her realized what she had done. Molly just smiled.

“It’s for the poster”

He looked so lost and confused and ready to scream so she decided to give him one last thing, it was the end anyways, there is nothing left to hide.

“For giving me the bravery to look at my daughters face again.”

The last thing Molly ever saw of that man was the shocked look on his face as she was dragged away.

As they dragged her along, she realized she could say something. She could tell them that that was her daughter up there on that resistance poster, the Jedi, she has my eyes. But Molly said nothing as they shoved her to the ground kneeling with the rest of the prisoners. It might have saved her, at least for a little while. She would have been brought to higher ups, maybe even the new supreme leader. Maybe used as bait or at least given a more glorious execution than face down in a mass grave on a backwater planet. Maybe A-Rey would come save her, she shouldn't but she just might because she is a better person than Molly ever hoped to be. But no, she never said a word as the blaster was trailed to her head. She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve to be saved. Her last thoughts before her death were her hope that Rey lives a good life, a better one than hers. And a selfish wish, that she would be reborn into another life, where she will be better, right her wrongs. She didn't deserve it but it didn't stop her from hoping.

Maybe her name could be Mara that time around.

(Brown Dwarfs cannot in a sense die, because they never really were alive in the first place. They are the stillborns of the galaxy. Dead before they ever got a chance to live.

But despite the horrible odds there is the minuscule chance for them to support life. Sometimes just sometimes life can take root despite the harsh circumstances. And when they do, that life that comes from nothing, it can be whatever it chooses.

She thought of Rey, and there was the dawning sense of pride at her little girl who survived living under a dead star and became great. So very great.)

* * *

 

The New Order let the villagers come collect the bodies, this was a demonstration after all and they will remember easier to not cross them after burying the loved ones they lost in their foolish crusade. One by one the bodies were taken away by grieving widows, widowers, children, and parents, until one body remained. Her gray streaked ginger hair sprayed out on the ground like a distorted halo and her eyes stared blankly out into space. No one came for her, the man with the poster was too distraught to even think about burials. The people of the village couldn't even tell you her name, she was new to the town and came alone. Her only companions the ghosts that seemed to trail her (And they were not even force ghosts because none of them knew she even existed and Obi-wan had left her long ago and he never did find her again).

The Higher ups decided to leave her body out as a symbol, a reminder. But a stormtrooper took pity on the nameless woman who went so bravely to her execution. In the night she took her body and dug a small grave for her in the forest. She met a sad man with a rolled-up poster along the way who helped her and laid the poster down like one traditionally does with flowers at her grave. That stormtrooper would remember those dead eyes before she pushed them closed for as long as she lived. And when she heard of an ex stormtrooper who was starting a rebellion she did not flinch as she shot down her superiors, remembering the sad woman with dead eyes long before the shot that killed her, who no one even knew her name.

She would remember her, even if no one else did.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So I plan to write a sequel to this that focuses on Rey and force ghost Obi-wan after tlj doing some of the stuff Molly mentioned. Ahsoka (and her padawan an oc, the one Molly calls an oracle), Lando, Ezra, Sabine, and some other characters (and children of characters) will show up, though its definitely a Kenobi story. But don't expect it anytime soon (after christmas at the earliest) I'm super busy. Uhhh Yeah! I left somethings intentionally vague because I plan to address it later on but if you have any questions about this verse or if anything is confusing feel free to ask. I love rambling about my stories.   
> Name Meanings:  
> Molly: Its both a name very similar to Mara and it means bitter   
> Dugal: Dark Stranger (also its a terrible name for a terrible person)
> 
> Thank You very much for reading I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
